by Hoaks, C. A.
“It’s open ahead. Straight shot back to the highway,” Miguel announced.
Chapter 40
Finders Keepers
Harry and Liz changed places. He settled behind the wheel and kept watch for pursuers using the side mirror. Liz gathered her medical supplies and made her way to the man and his children.
“The minute I see him, I’m getting this rig cranked, and we’re out of here,” Harry announced. “Get that guy fixed up. At least stop the bleeding.”
Liz studied the man sitting at the table. His sandy blond hair was matted and greasy. His thin face was drawn and haggard looking. Liz tried to smile and put the small family at ease, “Hi. My name is Liz. Let’s look at your injury?”
“My name is Jack, Jack Green,” the man answered. “Needn’t bother.”
“Well, let me try to clean it up and stop the bleeding for now,” Liz answered, as she passed him a compression bandage. “How old are your children?”
“Cody is thirteen. Trace is only nine,” Jack answered.
Liz smiled at the kids. “Hi. Are you two hungry?” Both kids nodded emphatically. “We have food in the cabinet in the kitchen behind you. Cody, maybe you can get something to eat and drink for both of you before we take off again. Bring something for your dad to drink.”
When the kids had hurried away, Liz pulled the cloth from the wound and cringed at the site of a human bite.
“I know what this means. Your friends should have left me behind,” Jack protested.
“Well, there’s a lot of reasons they didn’t, so now I’m going to try to help,” Liz responded.
“It’s a waste of resources. I’m going to die,” Jack answered.
Liz settled on the bench across from Jack. “Look, I’m doing this for the kids. They need to learn to trust us. You’ll be gone, and we’re their only hope of survival. I don’t want to have to worry they’ll sneak out in the middle of the night.”
Jack looked down. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m grateful you took us in.”
Liz got to her feet and came around the table to wipe at the wound with a paper towel dampened with alcohol. She pulled a four-inch gauze squares and taped them over the would. She finished and cleaned up the bloodied remains just as the two kids returned to the table. Both kids settled on the bench next to their father with warm cups of soup and water bottles in hand.
The engine of the camper roared to life, and the side door jerked open. John pulled himself inside and slammed the door. “Go!” Still gasping for air, he slumped into the passenger seat. “Those fuckers are crazy.” He spun the chair around and glared at Jack. “What in the hell did you bring down on us?”
“Sorry,” Jack whispered. “We were….”
Liz interrupted. “It’s not their fault. They could be the same people that attacked us and have been looking for us all along. They might have driven by and seen our light. These people could be caught up in our problems, not the other way around.”
John sighed. “I suppose you could be right.”
“It doesn’t matter how they found us. I hope your little stunt slows ‘em down enough to get us out of this.” Harry interjected.
“I thought it worked out pretty well,” John countered with a wry grin as he rubbed at his side. “It didn’t help my cracked rib, though. I’m getting too old for this shit.”
“Hey, at least, we’re driving in style,” Harry answered. “Get your rifle and be ready in case that crew follows us.”
“Got it.” He grabbed a bottle of water and a package of trail mix. He went to the back of the vehicle and opened the window.
Liz returned the supplies to the cabinet, then settled at the table across from the family. “Been a while since you had something to eat?”
Jack sipped at a bottle of water. “Three days, I think. A dozen of us was in a small mom-n-pop store for nearly a week. That was incredible. It had a wood stove, a creek in the back and plenty of canned and packaged foods. I guess they supplied hunters and backpackers. We ate packaged foods, cleaned up in the stream behind the building, and had plenty of water. They even had some clothes. We found clean shirts and cargo pants, boots, and socks. Shit, we thought we were in heaven.”
“I’ll bet,” Liz answered as she stumbled to the kitchen and carried back more snacks and drink for the kids. “Help yourself if you’re still hungry.”
Jack sighed as he wiped at the moisture that had collected on his face. “Can the kids get cleaned up?”
“Sure.” Liz smiled at the children. “Just use a sink full of water. We’re trying to save the water in the tank since we don’t know if we can get it filled up again on our way.”
Cod led Trace to the back of the camper.
“You sound like you have a destination in mind. Where are you heading?” Jack asked.
“My dad has property in the mountains. We’re headed there.”
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I won’t be around much longer, and my kids will be left alone. Will you take them with you?”
“Dad, we don’t need them!” Cody called from the back of the camper. “I’ll take care of us.”
Jack sighed. “Cody, you know what’s gonna happen. You saw what happened to your mom.”
“Dad?” Cody’s voice broke. “You can’t leave us. I won’t let you just give us away.” He ran to his father and collapsed into the seat next to him leaving Trace to stand behind with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Liz got up and moved to the passenger seat. Tears threatened as she listened to Jack talking to his son.
“Cody, it’s time for you to grow up. I got bit. You and I know what it means. I want you to stay with these folks. They didn’t have to save us, but they did. You need help protecting your sister. You know what they did to those women in the store.”
“Dad?” Cody cried.
“I want you to promise to do what these folks say and help them protect your sister. She’s going to need you, now, more than ever. Promise me.”
Cody remained quiet, the only sound him sniffling. Finally, he whispered. “Yes, sir.”
Jack leaned back and took a long deep, quivering breath. Trace settled on the bench across from her father and brother.
For the first time, Liz could see the younger child was a girl. She had dark hair that had been cut short with thick bangs across her forehead. She had combed her hair.
When Trace gave her father a hint of a smile, her dimples reminded Liz of her own daughter. She quickly turned back to the road ahead. Two stray children would not replace the family she lost.
At the end of the narrow gravel road, Harry pulled out on a blacktop the GPS identified as State Road 54. They turned on the highway, and Harry kept the speedometer hovering around sixty miles an hour.
“This is dangerous. What if we come over a hill and run into something?” Liz protested.
“Is it any more dangerous than those assholes finding us?” Harry answered.
Liz shrugged. “You may have a point. “ She walked back to the father and children. One look at the father and she announced. “You need to lie down.”
Jack tried to stand but fell, back into the seat. “You need to stop and leave me.” He gasped. “You can’t let me hurt my children.”
Liz reached out to gently pull Jack to his feet. “You come lay down. Right now, you need to rest.” When Jack got settled on the bed, she whispered, “We won’t let you hurt anyone, but for now, we need the kids to see they can trust us and you can help with that by letting us take care of you.”
Jack smiled and whispered, “Thank you.”
Liz patted his arm. “I’m going to fix you and the kids more soup. They need the calories and will eat if they see you try to eat, okay?”
Jack slid down against the headboard, and Trace crawled into the bed with her father. Liz looked at Cody. His face still mirrored his distrust and anger.
“Cody, are you still hungry? You think Trace is? Why don’t you come help me pick out something?”
Liz asked the youth.
“Doesn’t matter.” Cody snarled.
Liz gave him a sad smile and opened a cabinet door. “Probably doesn’t to you, but maybe to your dad and sister.”
Cody shrugged and walked to the cabinet where the microwavable soups and pasta cups were stored. “Shit!” He pulled one after another out of the enclosures. When he noticed the fruit cups sitting next to the soup, he fell to his knees sobbing.
Liz wrapped her arm around his thin frame and whispered, “It’s alright. You and Trace will survive this. You have to be brave for your sister. This is a terrible time, but I promise you, your dad will be at peace knowing you’ll be safe.”
Cody took a deep breath and pulled free. “It will never be alright.” He got to his feet, and he picked out two cups of pasta and a couple mixed fruit cups.”
Without a word, Cody heated the pasta in the microwave while Liz opened a fruit cup and pulled plastic spoons from a drawer. Together, they carried the meals to the large bed where Trace sat talking quietly with her father. She was a typical preteen drifting from one topic to the next. Liz listened as she was told about her favorite doll back home, how her dog had disappeared, then drifted into how it was so good to be clean, even if she didn’t have clean clothes.
“Here.” Cody shoved a pasta bowl into her hands and dropped the plastic spoon on the bed net to her.
“Oh, my favorite.” She squealed then dug the spoon into the tomato sauce covered pasta and took a big bite. She licked at the spoon, then dug it in the thick sodium loaded sludge in utter rapture.
Liz laughed. “Do you like fruit salad?” She held out the small can.
“OMG! Two things?” Trace looked to her father. “Can I have two things to eat, really?”
Jack nodded. “If Ms. Liz tells you it's okay, then it’s alright, sweetie.”
Trace leaned over and kissed her father’s damp check. “Thank you, daddy.”
“You need to go eat at the table, baby.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jack looked at his son. “Cody, you go eat with your sister. I need to speak to Ms. Liz.” Cody twisted his face to argue, but his father frowned slightly and added softly, “Do as I say, please.”
When the kids were out of earshot, Jack sighed. “It won’t be long.” Liz nodded, and he continued, “Please, make sure I don’t turn.” He took a labored breath. “Give me peace.”
Liz tried to swallow her revulsion. “We will.”
A sob caught in his throat. “We didn’t know. After she had died, she got back up and tried to….” Jack’s voice trailed off with the remembered horror. After a few seconds of silence, he continued, “They know what’ll happen now.”
Liz, John, and Harry took turns driving and sitting with Jack. While Jack grew more sick with each mile, Liz, Harry, and John became more frustrated with the huge camper. What had been a decent place to hide, transformed into an albatross driving through the arid countryside of West Texas. The camper got terrible mileage, and they had to stop for gas. They had been lucky the first stop. There was no one around, and they could siphon gas from a delivery access port. It wasn’t easy using the hand pump because the fuel level had gotten so low before the business had been abandoned, but they finally got the tank filled.
Meanwhile, Jack grew steadily worse. Cody and Tracy huddled close to their father until he finally sent them to rest in the bed over the front seats. Both kids fell asleep immediately.
It was the first time Liz witnessed a person succumbing to the infection. She watched Jack as he worsened, drifting in and out of consciousness by mid-afternoon. His complexion had turned an ashy gray. Beads of moisture had disappeared, and now his skin was dry and looked as if it was aging by the minute. He had taken to holding a towel over his lower face since each and every cough spewed drops of spittle and blood across the blanket covering him. Each breath came in a ragged gasp.
“Not long,” Jack whispered. “I hurt too much. Please…stop.”
“Harry, we need to stop,” Liz called out from the back of the camper.
Harry eased up on the accelerator, and the camper began to slow. “There’s a shack up ahead.” He turned in the drive, and the camper rolled over the culvert and through a gate. “John, we need to make sure there are not infected around before we get anyone out.”
Harry steered the camper into the narrow lane of an old rundown shack. The house was faded gray wood with only hints of paint remaining. It was built in two sections with a dog trot or breezeway between. The yard was overgrown and littered with run-down remnants of farm equipment. Under a massive spreading oak was a forty-year-old green Oldsmobile pitted and marred by huge patches of rust and weeds growing in the crevices around the windshield.
Harry pulled into the yard and stopped the camper. He glanced back and saw the two children standing in the bedroom doorway watching their father. The boy looked angry while the little girl had big tears sliding down her face. She chewed at her fingernails.
“Let’s do this,” Harry said.
John gave a quick nod, then turned to Liz. “Stay with them. See if you can get them away from Jack. He’s not going to last long.”
“I know,” Liz answered.
Harry and John stepped out of the camper with machetes in hand. They walked toward the house as they scanned the tree-lined yard. They disappeared into the left section of the house only to return a few minutes later and enter the right side of the breezeway. In a few moments, Harry crossed the dirt yard to the camper.
“It’s clear. John found a mattress. He’s pulling it out onto the breezeway.”
Liz reached out and gently moved the two children to the side.
Harry entered the camper and walked up to Jack. “Sorry about this, man.”
Jack struggled to get his legs off the bed. Finally, Harry reached down and gently pulled his legs over the edge of the bed.
“You can’t just leave him!” Cody protested.
“Hush,” Jack whispered. “My decision.”
Liz reached out to wrap her arm around the two children. “We’re not leaving him. We’ll stay as long as your dad needs us.”
Cody jerked away, but Trace turned toward Liz and buried her face against Liz’s chest.
Harry half carried half dragged Jack to the door where John waited. When they got him down the three steps, John and Harry moved Jack into the house as gently as they could. They laid him on a frayed blanket covering the old mattress. Liz followed with the children. Without the sound of the large engine, the world grew quiet with only the sound of Trace whimpering softly.
Jack sighed and smiled at the gathering.
“I’m fine now. You can leave me,” Jack whispered. “It won’t be long. I can feel myself slipping away.
“No. We won’t leave you,” Liz answered.
John disappeared into the rooms on the right and brought two kitchen chairs out into the breezeway. He settled on one and nodded for Liz to take the other. She sat down and pulled Trace into her lap. Cody sat down at the edge of the mattress. Harry walked from the breezeway and reappeared a few minutes later with several bottles of water. Harry moved back to the dilapidated steps to scan the yard of weeds and road beyond.
It was a hot afternoon, and the hint of a breeze through the open breezeway did little to dissipate the heat from the Texas sun on the tin roof. Soon everyone was glistening with moisture. Everyone, but Jack, his breathing had grown more shallow and his skin dry and cold. He struggled for each breath.
Suddenly, Jack’s eyes opened, and he looked at his son. Cody clutched at his father’s hand. Trace slipped from Liz’s lap and fell to her knees next to her father’s side. “I love you both, so much.” He coughed, and blood trickled from his mouth. “They’ll take care of you.”
Cody knelt next to his father. “I don’t want them. WE want you.”
Jack smiled. “Don’t always get what you want. Sometimes you get what you need. I love you son.”
Trace kissed her father�
�s hand. “Please, Daddy?”
“Love you, baby girl.” Jack’s eyes drifted closed, his chest rose one last time, and then lay still.
Liz felt tears slid down her cheeks. She felt so tired and defeated as she watched Jack’s life slip away, she wondered if the struggle was worth it. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She was little better than the kids, she had lost everything, but the child she carried.
After a full minute, Harry laid a hand on Liz’s shoulder. She rose and reached down to pull Trace to her feet and guided her out into the afternoon sun. Trace hid her face against Liz’s side as they stumbled toward the camper. John led Cody outside into the sun, while Harry followed a few minutes later.
By the time they got to the vehicle, a spiral of gray smoke had crept from the eaves of the breezeway.
Outside the camper, Cody stood stone still, while Trace whimpered. “My daddy….”
Liz pulled Trace into the camper with the rest of the ensemble following close behind. Harry climbed behind the wheel as bright orange flames broke through the windows in the rooms at both sides of the breezeway.
“Be at peace, man. We got this covered,” Harry whispered.
The kids and Liz settled at the table while John fell into the passenger seat with a deep sigh. Harry made a U-turn and began to head toward the gate when two vehicles stopped in front of the driveway. The deep ditch on either side of the culvert ensured they stayed where they were.
“What the f….” John cursed. “We don’t need any more shit today.”
“What is it?” Liz asked from the small kitchen where she had dampened a towel to wipe the moisture on her face. She struggled to ignore the throbbing at her temple and lightheadedness.
“Not sure. Two vehicles,” Harry answered. He grabbed his shotgun and laid it across his lap. “Get the kids to the back of the camper and on the floor. This goes south, get out that back window and into the woods.”
Liz dropped the damp towel and hustled the kids to the back of the camper.
Harry glanced over his shoulder, then continued. “John, you ready for this?”
“Fuck no, but I don’t see any way around it,” John said, and he checked his load.